1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to farm implements and methods in general and in particular to a method and apparatus for installing fencing or other barrier or confinement materials below the surface of, for example a litter pile, for raising animals therein.
2. Background
Large scale poultry farming requires large enclosures for containing the hatchlings in order to keep them confined, which at early stages is important for keeping them near a source of heat and at all stages is important for the birds' protection. Typically these enclosures are placed in a fresh bed of litter, which must be replaced after each batch of birds has been raised.
The litter can be comprised of a variety of materials and arranged in various ways. Often the bottom layer of litter is composed of a water-absorbent material, which is important for containing wastes and keeping the birds dry and clean. This absorbent material may be a natural material which is relatively inexpensive to obtain and relatively harmless to the birds.
Many growers use waste material from a variety of natural sources, for example hulls generated during the production of white rice, as a base for their litter. While rice hulls have many other beneficial properties such as water absorbency, they are nonetheless potentially dangerous to the health of the birds. If a chicken or turkey poult swallows a piece of hull the material can get stuck in the bird's crop and if not dislodged can lead to the bird's death. Therefore, the bottom layer of rice hulls (or other base material) is overlaid with layers of other, less harmful materials such as wood chips, wood shavings, or straw.
When barriers are installed in the barn or pen to create discrete brooding pens for the poults, care must be taken not to disturb the layers of material so as avoid turning up to the surface any materials (such as rice hulls) from lower layers that could be a danger to the birds. The extra care that must be taken during installation of temporary barriers for confining the birds (or other animals) while they are being raised makes manual installation of the barriers difficult and time-consuming. Even where no dangerous materials are used, manually installing a barrier in the litter pile is still a laborious process that can consume a great deal of time.
More generally, installing a barrier material into a layered material can be cumbersome and time-consuming, especially when care must be taken not to mix or disturb the various layers involved. One such example is the installation of lawn or garden edging materials, wherein one must avoid spilling dirt onto the adjoining grass or pavement.